A daycare owner has been sentenced to 21years of jail term after drugging children so she could have a little ‘me time’ hitting the gym and getting tanned. January Neatherlin who had been running her illegal childcare centre ‘Little Giggles’ however had parents believe that 11 am to 2 pm was ‘nap time’ for the kids.

Following a tip from her former roommate and boyfriend, cops found out that Neatherlin had been not attending to the children but spent the time in a local crossfit gym and tanning salon. She had also drugged the children with melatonin which supposedly induces sleep. The court has found Neatherlin guilty of 11 charges including first-degree criminal mistreatment and a third degree assault.

In January 2014, a 11 month old baby was from her childcare was taken to the hospital with bleeding and swelling ,which court documents proved to be consistent with being shaken or struck repeatedly. In another incident, parents of a child had alleged that their child had blisters on her mouth and shoulders. Reportedly, Neatherlin had overheated the bottle of milk in the microwave scaling the child.

In addition to this, the court documents also point out that Neatherlin had an ‘ongoing, systematic scheme of doing what she wanted and getting what she wanted, without any concern for the danger she was placing others in’.